Heart Diseases and Genetics?

IN YOUR DAILY DOSE: today is research that may help identify a genetic defect that may lead to an inefficient heart - does this lead to heart disease?

MAKING CHANGES: Your lifestyle choices make a real difference in your health no matter what your genes say.

FACT OR FICTION: You might think that all mammals can jump, but this one can’t. It purrs like a cat and lives 70 years. Do you know what it is?

In The News

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine discovered a mutated gene that may lead to an irregular heartbeat. This leads to an inefficient heart muscle and potentially increases your risk of heart disease.

However, this depends upon how you define heart disease. Coronary artery disease, heart attack and heart disease kills nearly 25 percent of all Americans, and when combined with stroke - is the number one killer in the U.S. Every year 785,000 Americans have their first heart attack.

There are two types of heart attack - during one a plaque breaks off in another area of the body, travels to the heart and blocks an artery that then kills the heart muscle in that area. In the second type the plaque grows in the artery in the heart and eventually grows so large that it blocks blood flow to the muscle.

In both cases, the plaque formation is triggered by carbohydrate and sugar intake that increases inflammation in the arteries where the plaque is laid down by the body to repair the area. The plaque continues to grow even after the area is repaired. While an inefficient heartbeat may increase your risk of congestive heart failure or the production of a clot in the heart chambers, it doesn’t increase your risk of developing plaque or inflammation in your body.

Although genetics does play a role in some of your health, the 50 year Human Genome Project, which began to prove the role genetics plays in the development of disease in order to improve treatment protocols, proved otherwise when it ended in 2003. Genes do play a role - but 95 percent of your health comes from the decisions you make each and every day.

Making Changes

Your heart health and your overall health depends on your ability to manage stress, get between 7-9 hours of quality sleep, drink enough clean, pure water to stay hydrated, get at least 45 minutes of exercise each day, move throughout the day, stop smoking, limit alcohol use, limit any drug use (including prescription) as much as possible and eat a diet high in healthy saturated fats ( including coconut oil, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and limited pastured, organic, GMO free meat and dairy).

Before you believe large “health” organization about what is healthy and what isn’t - do your own research, look where these organizations are getting their money (often from endorsing food products) and determine for yourself what you should and shouldn’t eat.

Daily Affirmation

I call on my strengths.I accomplish more when I leverage my strengths. I identify the things I am good at and channel my efforts accordingly. There are many ways for me to spot my signature strengths and build on them.

Fact or Fiction?

In all the earth there is just one mammal that can’t jump. They can grow to over 13 feet tall at the shoulder, weigh over 24,000 pounds, have skin an inch thick, live over 70 years and purr like a cat . . . but they can’t jump. Did you guess? It’s the elephant!